Follow the author of this article

Follow the topics within this article

The UK’s pig farmers are bracing themselves against a possible outbreak of African swine fever, a devastating viral disease that can wipe out whole herds.

The highly contagious disease cannot be caught by humans but can be carried in contaminated meat, such as pork chops, for as long as three months even if frozen.

The disease is fatal to pigs and has already led to the slaughter of more than 800,000 pigs worldwide.

The latest information from the World Organisation for Animal Health shows that there are currently 87 outbreaks ongoing in eight countries around the world. The highest number of cases over the last three years have been in Eastern Europe, although officials in China are worried about several outbreaks of the disease.

The Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs has assessed the risk of the virus spreading to the UK as "moderate" and has increased surveillance and advised farmers on how to protect against it.

She described African swine fever as a “tenacious little virus” which can survive in frozen pork products for up to three months.

She said that the large number of Eastern Europeans working in UK farms posed a particular risk.

“It would not be difficult for someone to bring some pork products from home back to the UK, discard them in a bin and then they could find their way into a pig,” she said.

The disease is highly contagious and can spread if healthy pigs eat infected meat or meat products, come into contact with infected pigs or their bodily fluid or anything contaminated with the virus such as people, clothing, vehicles and other equipment.

It is illegal to feed pigs domestic food waste or kitchen scraps and Defra advises that any leftover food should be disposed of in an area that pigs cannot get to.

Dr Davies said that the UK’s 2,000 pig farmers were aware of the regulations governing pigs but smallholders or those with pet pigs may not be aware that they have to register their animals or of the laws around feeding animals.

If the disease got into the UK's 2,000 or so wild pigs it would be very difficult to control, she said.

Dr Davies added that the effects of the disease would be huge on both farmers and the surrounding economy.

“If the disease gets into a farm the farmer would have to kill all their animals which would be devastating. The export market would also disappear as soon as a notifiable disease got into the country. China is one of our biggest markets - worth about £70 million a year - and that would dry up overnight.”

The 2001 foot and mouth outbreak in the UK resulted in the slaughter of seven million animals and is estimated to have cost the country around £8 billion.

A study in the Public Library of Science estimates that if the disease gets into the United States it could cost the economy $16.5bn in the first year alone.

The authors write: “Its recent introduction to the Caucasus region and subsequent spread into Eastern Europe, the lack of an effective vaccine, and the role of wild boars and soft ticks in transmission and maintenance of the virus underscores the significance of African swine fever virus and the challenges to disease control.”

Linda Dixon, a researcher at the Pirbright Institute in Surrey, is currently working on a vaccine against the virus.

She said: "In some countries they have managed to eradicate the disease from wild boar by building fences around the infected area and shooting the boar. But in countries where there are continual introductions across borders it would be very difficult to do that and a vaccine would be the best way to control the disease."

She added that the most likely way that the virus would enter the UK was through infected meat being brought into the country.

"If people bring in meat from infected area and it's discarded or fed to pigs or wild boar that is the most likely route for an outbreak in the UK," she said.

A spokesperson for Defra said disease control measures put in place in affected countries in Europe should ensure that no live pigs or wild boar, meat or products reach the UK through legal trade.

He added: “African swine fever has never been recorded in the UK but we are not complacent. We have robust measures in place to protect against animal disease outbreaks. Since the spread of the disease in Europe control measures have been put in place to ensure that no live pigs, wild boar, or meat products from affected areas reach the UK. We are also working closely with the pig sector to raise awareness of the risks and advise on maintaining high biosecurity standards.”